A Stroke of Genius
by Julia Cat
Summary: How exactly DID Megabyte "trick" Hex into giving up the Medusa? This is my take on things.


A Stroke of Genius  
by Julia Cat

**Author's Note:** I was watching my ReBoot tapes a few days ago and something occurred to me as I was watching an interesting scene in _The Medusa Bug_. The nice little dialogue between Megabyte and Hexadecimal about how Megabyte had "tricked" Hex into giving up the Medusa led me to wonder how it happened. This is my interpretation of it. I'd like to thanks Al's Waiter for proofreading for me.

**Disclaimer:** ReBoot belongs to Mainframe Entertainment, and the characters of Megabyte, Hexadecimal, Hack, Slash, and Scuzzy belong to them. I am using them without permission, but for the purpose of divertissement. 

* * *

Hexadecimal was bored. It had been cycles since anything exciting had happened in Mainframe, and she was just itching to create a little chaos. She was seated in front of her looking glass, admiring the system and its inhabitants as they went about their humdrum, uninteresting lives. 

"What do you think, Scuzzy?" she asked her pet, who was hovering a few pixels away from her, "What do you say we make their lives a little more interesting?" The multicoloured mouse-cat hesitated, which intrigued his mistress; Scuzzy always liked her ideas. "What's the matter? Have you been prowling around Al's dumpsters again?" Scuzzy shook himself back and forth in a mock "no." He seemed distressed about something.

Hexadecimal's mask switched from complacent to frustrated. "No?!" she virtually roared. "Then what's your problem?" Scuzzy backed off a bit, then presented his mistress with his viewscreen. Hexadecimal came in for a closer look, peering closer at the mouse-cat's head. 

The scene Scuzzy was playing was of Megabyte talking to Hack and Slash in his Tor. "A delete command, masked as a mask," he was saying. "She will never know what erased her."

Hexadecimal cocked her head and her mask became concerned. "Scuzzy, are you ill? I've seen that before. Remember? We gave my dear brother a taste of his own medicine. You _do_ remember that lovely bomb we sent him, don't you?"

Skuzzy shook himself in frustration. He had always hated how he could never properly communicate with his mistress. He would have to rely upon other means. Circling Hexadecimal's throne, Scuzzy floated toward the looking glass, indicating the reflection with a gesture of his tail. He then projected Megabyte's likeness in his viewscreen as Hexadecimal watched, intrigued. He again replayed the scene about the mask bomb. He projected Megabyte's face again, only to have it dissolve into an image of Hexadecimal.

Hexadecimal thought she was slowly beginning to understand. Her mask switched first to a smile of pride, then to one of malicious contempt. "Oh, Scuzzy, how diabolical of you! So. Megabyte has the upper hand, does he? True, he has had all the fun in trying to ruin Mainframe. I think I know of a way I can ruin him _and_ Mainframe, too!" 

Scuzzy purred in contentment as Hexadecimal's cackle filled the air and echoed off the walls of her lair.

* * *

Hack and Slash were busily chasing Nibbles around the Tor so they could take him for his daily walk. He was being stubborn today, and unless they could get his null-sized leash on him within the next millisecond, they would be in big trouble; Megabyte had been in a foul mood lately and they certainly did not want to make him angrier than he already was. His failure to turn the guardian had made him sour, and no matter what Hack and Slash did to cheer him up worked. 

"Nibbles, come here, my little friend!" Slash cooed, jangling the leash to get the null's attention.

"Walkies!" Hack echoed, zooming after Nibbles using his jet pack.

The null would have none of this, and the two bots were practically at their wits end in trying to catch him. The null screeched and moved faster than either of the henchbots imagined was possible, zooming across the Tor, up the arm of Megabyte's throne, where the virus sat brooding, and into his outstretched hand, only to get squeezed mercilessly.

"Hack, Slash..." Megabyte rumbled menacingly.

"Uh, oh," Hack said, trembling.

"This cannot be good," Slash said, clattering just as hard.

"We're in for it now."

"We're done for."

"We were just trying to help."

"We thought you looked so depressed."

"We wanted to bring Nibbles for a walk--"

"So you could have time to cheer up--"

"But that didn't work because--"

"Will you two imbeciles be quiet?" Megabyte growled. Hack and Slash instantly stopped jabbering and froze. "I'm beginning to wonder why I assembled you in the first place; all you do is cause me headache after headache."

"Sorry, boss!" the two bots whined in unison.

"Now make yourselves useful and go... see what my sister is doing for a change. I could do with the silence."

"Right away, boss!" Slash said, snapping to attention and saluting with a loud clank.

"You can count on us!" Hack said, emulating his twin and knocking himself over with the force of his salute.

"Hack!" Slash exclaimed, rolling over to his grounded counterpart, "speak to me! You're too young to end file! Oh, Hack!"

Megabyte rolled his eyes and buried his face in his hand. "Oh, for -- stop your blubbering and go!"

* * *

Hexadecimal was hard at work, creating just the kind of bauble that Megabyte would want, and that she, of course, would give him. She would not let him have it easily however. She was aiming at total humiliation, and it would only happen if this was executed perfectly, to the finest detail. A group of nulls were gliding around her as she performed her task; her good mood attracted them to her, and she delighted in their company as she played with the device she was programming.

"Now," Hex mused to herself, "how do we delete two nulls with one command?" The nulls around her all froze, emitting screeches of varying pitches. "Oh, I'm sorry," Hex said, smiling apologetically, "it's just a figure of speech." The nulls relaxed, then went back to their circling. "Megabyte needs to be convinced that I'm creating some form of weapon... something that he will want to use to get to the Super Computer. He'll do anything he can to get it away from me, and he'll unleash its power!" Hex cackled once more, her glee making the nulls circle even faster. "Oh, isn't it perfect, Scuzzy! I'll get Megabyte _and_ Mainframe all to myself!"

It took Hexadecimal several milliseconds and a rude interruption by Hack and Slash for her to complete her little toy, but when it was finished, she held it in the palm of her clawed hand and, with one finger, closed the little hexagonal box. Then, she smiled.

Her moment of pride was short-lived, however, because soon after she closed the program, she heard a rather large bang coming from the entrance to her lair. Soon after, two voices chimed in unison, "Hexadecimal!"

"Oh, look, Scuzzy!" Hexadecimal cooed, after recovering from her surprise. "What a perfect opportunity to advertise my new toy!" Grinning maliciously, Hex called sweetly to Hack and Slash, "Hack! Slash! What a pleasant surprise!" 

"Sur...prise?" said Hack.

"What?" said Slash.

Both began to scream in unison as the ground beneath them suddenly swallowed them up. They slid down the slide into Hex's lair and landed in a heap at her feet.

Scuzzy floated over to them and sniffed them. He made a noise of disgust and turned his back on them as Hex waltzed toward the heap of broken bots. "Greetings, gentlemen! How nice is was for you to drop in!"

"It was our pleasure!" Slash said, moving his hand from somewhere in the pile of scrap metal.

"Megabyte wanted us to pay you a visit," said Hack.

"Hey, shh! We weren't supposed to tell her that!" Slash scolded.

"Oh, right. Sorry. We decided to visit you because you're such a charming lady."

"That's better."

Hex beamed. "Well, I _am_ irresistible! Whatever can I do for you?"

"Well," Slash began.

"We're not really sure."

"Yes. Megabyte said--"

"SHH!"

"I mean, we thought--"

"Yes, we did think!"

"Would you let me finish?"

"Sorry."

"We thought we'd uh.... drop by to see what you're doing. You've been sooo quiet lately and we were wondering what you were up to."

Hexadecimal grinned. This was perfect. How lovely for Megabyte to send his low-density henchmen to find out her plans. They were ever so gullible. Things were falling perfectly into place. "Why Hack, Slash, why ever would you think I'm up to something?" she asked innocently. "Well, never mind. I've been awfully bored and lonely. I've been hoping for some company. I think I'll call Megabyte and thank him!"

While she was using her mirror, Slash said to Hack, "Doesn't she seem to be acting a little... random?"

"Of course she's acting random, buddy of mine!" Hack replied, "she's a chaos virus. She's _always_ random. Everything looks normal to me!"

"Oh. Right."

Hexadecimal, meanwhile, was talking to Megabyte. "Why, hello, dear brother! So nice of you to send your goons here to visit me. I was so lonely..."

"What are you talking about? And what is that you are holding?" Megabyte sneered at the item Hexadecimal was holding in plain view.

"What, this?" Hexadecimal said, holding up the Medusa. "This is my new toy."

"A toy, Hex? Whatever does it do?"

"That," the chaos virus said with a smile, "is for me to know and for you to find out."

Megabyte suddenly smiled. "Is that so? Hack, Slash--"

"Uhh... boss?" said Hack. "We're sort of indisposed right now..."

"Oh, you fools!" Megabyte huffed. "Fine. I shall simply have to do it myself!"

With that, Hex's looking glass went dark. Hexadecimal squealed with joy.

* * *

After shipping the smashed Hack and Slash back to Megabyte, Hex sat in her throne and waited. "I can't wait to see the look on Megabyte's face when he storms in here demanding the Medusa," Hex told Scuzzy. "Think of the mess he will make. We'll have all of Mainframe under control when he turns everything to _stone_!" Unable to contain herself, she cackled.

A large **BOOM** resounded, then, as something big hit the tower of her lair. "Ah. It begins," she said in a sultry voice. Putting on her surprised face, she rose into the air and exited the lair to find Megabyte's ABCs trying to smash her lair to bits. As the ABC operators saw Hexadecimal, they immediately stopped firing.

"What are you doing to my lair?!" Hexadecimal shrieked, forming fireballs in her palms. The ABCs backspaced a few pixels and a vidwindow popped up near the tanks. It was Megabyte. "Are you causing all this mayhem, _dear brother_?" Hexadecimal crooned, turning her random mask on Megabyte.

"Why, of course, Hexadecimal. How else do you expect me to steal your new toy?"

"As much as I _love_ the mess you're making, you can't possibly expect me to give it up that easily. I may be random, but I am not stupid."

Megabyte chuckled. "Ah. Yes. Very good, Hexadecimal. I suppose I'll have to proceed some other way." He looked incredibly pleased with himself all of a sudden. "Go back to your scheming, I'm certain I'll find some other way to remove your prized possession..." The vidwindow snapped shut.

* * *

Back in her lair, Hexadecimal found that the Medusa was missing. "Why, Megabyte," she said to herself, "I didn't think you'd get it that easily. Let's see what you're up to."

She turned to her looking glass to watch.

* * *

"Corporal Smiley, you have succeeded brilliantly in your mission," Megabyte was saying, "Sneaking into my sister's lair while I was talking to her was a stroke of genius! How would you like a promotion?"

"Oh, how wonderful, lord Megabyte," said Smiley, "you know it's always such a pleasure to work for you!"

"Yes, yes, I know..." Megabyte said, dismissing the binome. Turning to examine his prize, he said to himself, "Who is the winner now, Hexadecimal?"

* * *

Hexadecimal smiled to herself, trying to repress the feeling of control that she always got when she outsmarted her brother. She turned to Scuzzy. "Now, Scuzzy, who executed the _true_ stroke of genius? This should be interesting... Now. If you'll excuse me, I have an act to play."

**END.**


End file.
